Category Archives: Math Tools for Teachers

There are lots of great math apps I love using in my classroom, but my favorites are usually the ones that focus on one skill. The simply designed Oh No Fractions is an excellent free iPad app that focuses on one skill – comparing fractions using models. Perfect for reinforcing basic skills and helping students…

I love using apps that foster collaboration in the math classroom. Make your preparation for state exams interactive and engaging with the free Graphs app. Students can answer questions based on bar graphs, line graphs and pie charts. It’s great test prep and a fantastic way to extend or review a unit on statistics and data. Here’s my Common Core aligned iPad lesson…

There are so many great screencasting apps that I use in my classroom. Tellagami is a fantastic free iPad app takes it to another level by allowing users to create their own avatars and place themselves anywhere they’d like (I’m “standing” in my classroom now.) If you’re flipping your classroom, leaving a message for students…

There are so many tools I used as a student that are now available virtually on iPads. One fabulous free app that fits into this category is the Geoboard. Forget about rubber bands snapping around your classroom. The virtual geoboard has everything you need to teach polygons, area, scaling and symmetry. Check out my Common…

It’s important for all students to use math vocabulary when describing how they’ve solved a problem. Math Terms Glossary is a free app that students can use to access definitions of math terms. Most entries include pictures and a Spanish translation of the definition. Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan bundle for teaching…

I love using Dropbox in my classroom, in fact I can’t live without it. Dropbox is fantastic if you’re looking to conserve resources or save time making photocopies. Here are just a few things that are in my students’ Dropboxes right now: Vocabulary reference charts Reader’s Theater scripts Reading passages Project Rubrics Activity sheets that…

If you use rubrics to grade student work you have to try ForAllRubrics! Once you set up your class list, this website allows users to import rubrics they’ve already made, or easily create new ones. Open the site on your iPad and with a few taps you’ll have projects graded in no time. It’s easy…

There are lots of great free timeline apps for the iPad and I’ve shared some already (American Revolution and Titanic). IBM’s Mind of Modern Mathematics is a fantastic interactive timeline with illustrations, primary source documents and information on important moments in the history of math. It includes biographies of famous mathematicians and vintage videos on…

So many teachers in one iPad classrooms love using Educreations as a SMARTBoard simulator. Another fantastic presentation tool is Stage: Interactive Whiteboard and Document Camera. This app works as a document camera and allows you to switch from a whiteboard, picture background, and camera while leaving text on the screen. It also has a laser…

My students spend a lot of time working in differentiated groups. That means that I’m constantly circulating to make sure that everyone is on task. Sometimes I need to quickly review a skill for a group. Instead of carrying a small dry erase board (and turning my fingers different colors from messy Expo markers) I…